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Defense carries Westlake girls to win in 1st round of soccer playoffs

Defense carries Westlake girls to win in 1st round of soccer playoffs

Churchill’s Kristen Stack head bumps the ball while Westlake’s Maddie Laude challenges the play during the bidistrict 6A Region 4 girls varsity playoff soccer game between the Westlake Chaparrals and the San Antonio Churchill Chargers at Westlake High School on Friday March 24, 2017. JOHN GUTIERREZ / FOR AMERICAN STATESMAN

Story Highlights

Goalie Paige Wallace earns another shutout as Chaps advance

Any coach or player will point out that a palpable sense of urgency makes the playoffs very different from the regular season.

But one thing remained the same for Westlake’s girls soccer team in its playoff opener against San Antonio Churchill. And that constant – a lockdown defense – carried the Chaps to a 2-0 win March 24 at Chaparral Stadium.

The Chaps (13-5-2) recorded their fourth shutout in the past five games, and three-year starting goalie Paige Wallace collected her 35th career blank slate as Westlake advanced to face San Antonio Brandeis this week in an area playoff Friday. The game is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Cibolo Steele High School.

Brandeis (18-1-1), the third-ranked team in the San Antonio Express-News’ area poll, defeated New Braunfels Canyon 2-1 in overtime.

“We had a good practice and a good scrimmage against Westwood (earlier in the week),” said Wallace, a Trinity University signee. “We have some young starters, but they are very good and very confident. We definitely haven’t had any issues with confidence.”

Still, the Chaps couldn’t feel too confident about securing a hard-fought win until Ally Huang knocked home a shot that Lucy Laguarta banged off the post with 10 minutes left in the match to give Westlake a 2-0 lead.

“That was huge,” Wallace said. “Being up 1-0 is always a tight score, and when we got that buffer of two goals, that was good to get our energy up.”

And it was more than enough for Wallace and a scrappy defense keyed by outside backs Katie Kenney and Babo Fagerberg and center backs Victoria Lee and freshman Addie Hackney.

A physical Churchill squad (10-7-4), intent on playing tougher than the team showed in a 3-0 loss to Westlake at the I-10 Shootout in Katy in January, limited Westlake’s chances for most of the first half.

The Chaps finally broke through with one minute left in the first half. Ryan Dittoe rumbled down the right wing and drew Churchill goalie Rebecca Choate away from the net. With Choate bearing down, Dittoe slipped a cross to the onrushing Laguarta, who calmly poked the ball into the empty net to give Westlake a 1-0 lead by the break.

The goal came just a few minutes after Laguarta rifled a shot off the left goalpost, which marked Westlake’s only other shot in the first half.

Although first-year Westlake coach Westlake coach Andy Gaworecki expressed satisfaction with the play of his back line, he also criticized his team’s lack of offensive cohesion.

“We didn’t show up, and we didn’t execute,” he said. “We were fortunate to get a goal at the end of the first half; we could have been 0-0 or down a goal.

“I’m not real excited about this, because we made some uncharacteristic mistakes. The only thing you can do as a coach is chalk it up to inexperience. We have a lot of freshman and sophomores in the lineup. Hopefully, it was a lot of nerves.”

But Gaworecki also admitted that Churchill has improved its quality of play from earlier in the year. The Chargers (10-6-4) were 7-0-2 in their last nine regular-season games, with the ties coming against San Antonio powerhouses Reagan and Johnson.

But, like the first meeting between the schools, the Chargers still couldn’t crack Westlake’s defense.